Social Inequality: Older Than You Think

When you hear someone talking about a universal issue such as social inequality, one thought immediately comes to mind: inequality in America (i.e. the current economic tension between the top 1% and the bottom 99%). You might also think of the Arab Spring, as tyranny and disparity is clearly manifested through the violent upheavals. I could go on with innumerable contemporary examples, but to save time, I'll just say what you least likely would have thought of: Neolithic asperity.

That's right. Social injustice dates back to prehistoric times. At first, this may seem unprecedented. After all, social hierarchies such as South Asian caste systems and Medieval feudalism developed much later, however new archaeological evidence says otherwise.

Even though researchers are still debating on this topic, most of them agree that these social systems came about around the same time as the onset of agriculture. Bodies found in Stone Age burial sites in Europe are argued to show proof of this early unequivalence.

Some archaeologists and researchers have found the bodies of 7,000 year old farmers who may have had better access to fertile soil than their lower-class counterparts. Men buried with adzes appear to have lived in areas with productive and bountiful loam. There is also evidence suggesting that most women were foreign to the areas where they were laid to rest. In fact, it has been theorized that this was because of a male-centered society: women had to move in with their husbands when they became married.

Property tenure and its hereditary handling were also not uncommon, along with economic inequality. These gaps became wider over time, eventually spilling over into the Bronze and Iron Ages and entering the Industrial era. Since then, inequality has been present all around the world, an inescapable and inevitable trap for everyone. Disposing of it will not be easy, if we are to engineer more advanced civilizations.

For more information, I recommend visiting these sites.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/occupy-the-neolithic.html

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120529_inequality.htm